Latest California Healthline Stories
Déjà vu Again for Single Payer Bill
Single payer system advocates are nothing if not persistent.
Twice before, in the past two legislative sessions, the state Legislature passed a law to establish a single payer system in California.
And twice before, the governor vetoed it.
State Makes Push for Coverage for Pregnant Women
A bill to require health insurance plans to include maternity care is on the doorstep of the Senate floor, but it will have to resolve some fiscal questions before it moves forward.
“Very simply, when women do not have maternity services as part of their heath insurance, or have maternity services that are substandard they end up going on state programs, like AIM, the Access for Infants and Mothers program, which is a subset of Medi-Cal (the state’s Medicaid program),” said bill author Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate).
“As of 2009,” he said, “about 1,400 women were enrolled with policies that did not cover maternity services, so the rest of us had to pay for it.” An even greater number had policies with high deductibles or inadequate coverage, De La Torre said, and they used state programs, as well.
Regulating Insurance Rate Hikes Could Be Costly
A funny thing happened on the way to passing a bill to regulate large health insurance rate hikes — it hit a wall of money.
The last hurdle in the state legislature for AB 2578 by Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) before getting its vote on the Senate floor was a quick stop in the Senate Committee for Appropriations. But on Thursday, the committee heard a cost analysis report presented by the Department of Managed Health Care that froze the legislation in committee — at least for now.
To implement the bill, the Department of Managed Health Care estimated the state would need to hire 110 high-priced actuaries, and an additional support staff of about 60 more people, at a cost of $23 million for the first year.
Health Insurance Limited for Same-Sex Couples
Gay couples in California may have many of the rights of heterosexual married partners — but not when it comes to dependent health insurance coverage, according to a UCLA study released in the July issue of Health Affairs.
California is a state where registered domestic partnership laws extend marriage-like rights and responsibilities, where laws regulating health insurance and health plans require equal treatment of spouses and domestic partners.
But, according to the study, lesbian and gay couples have a difficult time collecting dependent coverage benefits outside of the public sector.
Hope Hits Streets to Get New Ideas
A new organization of health care leaders wants to talk through the problems of health care, but that doesn’t mean that’s all Hope Street Group wants to do.
“We are very much geared toward action,” Monique Nadeau said.
Nadeau, executive director of the new health-policy brainstorming organization, said Hope Street Group has tackled education issues in the past. The group now turns its attention to health care.
Medical Home Model Gains Traction on North Coast
The idea of a “medical home” to make primary care work better for patients, physicians and insurers is gaining a foothold on the North Coast, but many say California as a whole is behind the curve nationally.
High-Risk Pool Gets Fast Track Treatment
California has been running its own high-risk insurance pool for the past 18 years. So the people running the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) are extremely familiar with the pressing need for the program throughout the state.
When the federal government offered up funds to significantly expand the number of people who could have access to a high-risk insurance pool, California officials jumped at it.
“There are a lot of people in California who really need this,” MRMIB’s Deputy Director of Legislative and External Affairs Jeanie Esajian said. “And it is something MRMIB has strived to do for a long time — 18 years. This gives us the opportunity to provide services for so many more people.”
California Dental Care Crisis Could Get Worse With Budget
California has the second-lowest ranking for children’s oral health care in the nation, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. Pre-schoolers have rotten teeth, oral infections and metal caps — and if proposed budget cuts go through, it could get worse.
Single Payer Bill Back in the Mix
The normally sedate audience at an Assembly health committee hearing broke into spontaneous applause last week as Senate member Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) stepped to the microphone. Leno was introducing SB 810, which would establish a single-payer health care system in California.
The burst of applause came from a busload of supporters in the hearing room. It has been a long, hard fight for single-payer advocates. Twice the idea has been approved by the state legislature, and twice it has been vetoed by the governor.
The single-payer system would bypass health insurance companies in California, handing the authority and responsibility of health care administration to the state. With passage of a national health care reform law, some expected the single-payer idea to wither on the vine. But at last week’s Assembly Health Committee hearing, it was alive and well.
Medi-Cal Waiver Gets Senate Committee Approval After Unusual Third Tier of Testimony
You know you’re in murky legislative territory when the format of a health committee meeting has to be changed to accommodate the complicated nature of the proposed bill.
In this case, it was AB 342 by John Perez (D-Los Angeles), which the Senate Health Committee eventually approved at its hearing last week. It is the companion Medi-Cal waiver bill to SB 208, which recently passed the Assembly Health Committee.
Usually, committees hear pro and con testimony, but for AB 342, Senate committee chair Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) made a third category. “It’s a hybrid category just for this one bill,” Alquist said. “For those who are neither opposed nor support, but have concerns.”